moopfmerising musings

So I figured I’d start giving some background to the processes I use when I design. It’s a little convoluted, I guess, but that’s more to do with the way I’m comfortable drawing. I’m sure others will find the process I use pretty long winded, especially as my first step is always, without fail, pen and paper! And that’s where we’ll start in this first installment.

Oi! Mr. Luddite!

I find a real disconnect in my ability to draw if I try to go straight to the computer using a graphics tablet. There’s something about not looking at where you’re drawing that doesn’t sit well with me and I find it takes the freedom away from my sketching and doodling. I honestly wish I could as I think it would speed up my production. I’d also need to get a Wacom. If I ever won the lottery, their CintiQ might give me the best of both worlds as you draw directly onto a screen. For now though I always use pen and paper to sketch my ideas.

Often there isn’t any structure to my doodlings, it’s more just getting out onto paper whatever is going on in my head. Much of what I doodle is useless in terms of designs I can use, and some of it will sit there for weeks or months before I feel that there’s something I can do with it. A few times however something will come out that I instantly think has promise and then I’ll probably expand upon those initial doodles with some further doodling to see where it takes me.

My tools are pretty simple. I use a Rotring Artpen (actually two, a Sketch F and a Sketch EF). I like these as they take standard sized ink cartridges, are comfortable to hold and are very accurate. For paper I generally use notebooks or sketchpads. Mostly these contain watercolour paper (300gsm Bockingford is my favourite) or other papers suitable for drawing. A great example of one of the sketch books I am currently using is this book that I purchased from Moonbindery on Etsy.

Moonbindery also did a little blog post about my use of the book here, if you’re interested. I must confess that I’m a bit of a stationary hoarder. I love paper, especially, and have heaps of different sketch books lying around that will get used one day. It’s an addiction

If you peek closely at the image on the right, a photo of a couple of pages in one of my sketch books, you’ll see a couple of designs that have already made it onto products in my store. They are the Face Puzzle badges and the Toothy Totem keyrings. The sketching phase doesn’t generally mean that the design is finished and often they’ll be re-worked as I continue through the process. For instance for the Face Puzzle, originally there were nostrils/teeth but when I came to work on this in Adobe Illustrator I dropped those out.

One more thing I have to add, and it’s something I’ve always done. I always date pages in my sketch book when I start using them. It’s not a practice that I just use for sketching either, I’ll use it on anything I’m writing on as well. It’s a habit that I got into years ago and it’s useful for keeping track of chronology in my work and also helps me to find specific things I’m after as the process of putting a date on, personally speaking at least, seems to give my brain a reference point to go back to. Heh yes, I can be a bit odd.

So that’s the first phase of the process. From there I’ll take the design into Illustrator and I’ll go through the process of re-creating the design in the next installment.